It feels like just yesterday we were watching Mike Wazowski struggle with a retainer and a massive pile of textbooks, but the reality is a bit more sobering for those of us who remember the hype. If you're scratching your head trying to remember exactly when did monsters university come out, the answer is June 21, 2013.
Yeah. It’s been well over a decade since we went back to school with Mike and Sulley.
While the film officially hit theaters across the United States on that June Friday, the rollout was actually a bit of a global tour. It premiered way back on June 5, 2013, at BFI Southbank in London. Then it swung over to the Seattle International Film Festival on June 8. Honestly, by the time most of us saw it in our local suburban multiplex, the "cool kids" in the industry had already been talking about it for weeks.
Why 2013 Was Such a Huge Year for Pixar
When Monsters University arrived, it wasn't just another sequel. It was actually Pixar's very first prequel. Think about that for a second. Up until that point, they’d done sequels for Toy Story and Cars, but they’d never gone backward in time.
The pressure was massive. Monsters, Inc. was a stone-cold classic from 2001, and fans were protective of it. People weren't just asking when the new one was coming out; they were asking if Pixar could actually pull off a "college movie" without losing the soul of the original characters.
The movie ended up being a summer juggernaut. It opened with a staggering $82.4 million in its first weekend. That put it right behind Toy Story 3 for the second-biggest Pixar opening at the time. Basically, everybody and their mother was at the theater that June.
The Development Hell You Didn't See
Most people don't realize that we almost got a completely different movie. Long before the 2013 release, there was a project in the works called Monsters, Inc. 2: Lost in Scaradise.
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This was back when Disney and Pixar were having a bit of a corporate spat. Disney had a division called Circle 7 Animation that was basically tasked with making sequels to Pixar properties whether Pixar liked it or not. The Lost in Scaradise plot involved Mike and Sulley visiting Boo for her birthday, only to find she’d moved. They would’ve ended up trapped in the human world.
When Disney eventually bought Pixar and the leadership changed, that project was scrapped. Thank goodness, right? Instead, we got the story of how a small, one-eyed monster with a big dream met a legacy student who thought he could coast on his name.
Breaking Down the Visual Tech of 2013
If you watch the movie today, it still looks incredible. That’s because Pixar used Monsters University to debut a new lighting system called Global Illumination.
In the original 2001 film, artists had to manually place lights to mimic how shadows worked. By 2013, the computers were doing the heavy lifting. To give you an idea of the scale:
- Each frame took roughly 29 CPU hours to render.
- Sulley had 5.5 million individual hairs on his body.
- In the first movie, he only had about 1 million.
If you tried to render this movie on a single high-end laptop from 2013, it would have taken you about 10,000 years to finish. Pixar used a server farm of over 2,000 computers just to get it done in time for the June release.
The Voices We Remember (and the Ones We Forgot)
Billy Crystal and John Goodman were obviously back as Mike and Sulley. It wouldn't have worked without them. But the 2013 cast was actually stacked with talent that people sometimes overlook.
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We got Helen Mirren as the terrifying Dean Hardscrabble. Then there was Nathan Fillion as the preppy jerk Johnny Worthington III. Even Charlie Day showed up as Art, that weird purple U-shaped monster who probably should have been the mascot for the whole film.
One of the more bittersweet facts is that Marcia Wallace, who voiced the Librarian (you know, the one who literally throws people out of the building), passed away just months after the film came out. It was one of her final roles, and she nailed that "scary quiet" vibe perfectly.
The Big Retcon: Did Pixar Mess Up the Timeline?
Here is the thing that still drives die-hard fans crazy.
In the original Monsters, Inc., there’s a very specific line where Mike says, "You've been jealous of my good looks since the fourth grade, pal."
When Monsters University came out in 2013, it showed them meeting for the very first time as college freshmen.
Wait. What?
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Director Dan Scanlon has talked about this quite a bit. The team actually tried to write a version where they met as kids, but it didn't fit the emotional arc of the movie. They decided that the spirit of the friendship was more important than a throwaway line from 12 years prior. It’s one of those things you just have to "head-canon" away—maybe Mike was just exaggerating or they knew of each other in fourth grade but didn't actually hang out.
Where to Find Monsters University Today
Since its 2013 theatrical run, the movie has lived several lives. It had a big Blu-ray and DVD release in October 2013, just in time for the holiday season.
Nowadays, it’s a staple on Disney+. If you're planning a marathon, the chronological order is actually:
- Monsters University (The Prequel)
- Monsters, Inc. (The Original)
- Monsters at Work (The Disney+ Series)
The series Monsters at Work actually picks up right where the first movie ends, showing the transition from "Scream" power to "Laugh" power. It’s a cool way to see how the lessons Mike learned in college—that he wasn't naturally scary but was a genius at the theory of scaring—eventually led to him being the perfect comedy coach.
Actionable Next Steps for Fans
If you're looking to revisit the world of Monstropolis, don't just stop at the movie.
- Watch the Short: Check out The Blue Umbrella. It was the short film that played before Monsters University in theaters. It’s a photorealistic masterpiece about two umbrellas falling in love in the rain.
- Explore the Website: Believe it or not, the "official" Monsters University campus website is often still kept live or archived by Disney. It’s built like a real college site with "admissions" and "campus news."
- Spot the A113: Like every Pixar movie, the classroom number A113 is hidden in the film. Keep your eyes peeled during the scaring labs; it’s a fun Easter egg to hunt for with kids.
Ultimately, Monsters University might not have the "cry-your-eyes-out" ending of the first film, but its message is arguably more important. It tells us that sometimes your dream doesn't work out the way you planned, and that’s actually okay. You can still find your place in the world, even if you aren't the "scariest" guy in the room.